http://news.yahoo.com/...
Mexico on Wednesday ordered the arrest of the mayor of the city of Iguala, his wife and an aide, charging they masterminded last month's attack that left six students dead and 43 missing.
Carrying torches and candles, tens of thousands of people marched through Mexico City and other cities to protest the disappearance of the students.
"We shall overcome," protesters shouted with clenched fists in the air. Marching were students, teachers, farmers and activists joining relatives of the missing students.
We have something WORSE than ISIS in our own backyard. But American federal politicians from either political party are mostly tepid in responding to the threat, with few exceptions. Though I am quick to point out to internet contrarians that all the news about ISIS in our media is NOT necessarily war propaganda-- Islamic extremism is a real problem in the world-- we must also contextualize what kind of threat ISIS ACTUALLY poses to Americans.
And just as British colonialism has played a role in current Middle Eastern violence, so too does failed U.S. drug war imperialism shape the current state of narco-terrorism. The actions of drug cartels are no less 'terrorism' than what's done in the name of islamic extremism.
Drug cartels are worse than ISIS.
even as the U.S. media and policymakers radically inflate ISIL’s threat to the Middle East and United States, most Americans appear to be unaware of the scale of the atrocities committed by Mexican drug cartels and the threat they pose to the United States.
Cartels versus ISIL
A recent United Nations report estimated nearly 9,000 civilians have been killed and 17,386 wounded in Iraq in 2014, more than half since ISIL fighters seized large parts on northern Iraq in June. It is likely that the group is responsible another several thousand deaths in Syria. To be sure, these numbers are staggering. But in 2013 drug cartels murdered more than 16,000 people in Mexico alone, and another 60,000 from 2006 to 2012 — a rate of more than one killing every half hour for the last seven years. What is worse, these are estimates from the Mexican government, which is known to deflate the actual death toll by about 50 percent.
Having blogged here on and off for 7 years about the failed drug war-- a disastrous policy that some of you Baby Boomers have witnessed firsthand for fucking DECADES now-- it seems like drug war fatigue has prevented us from doing anything about Mexico. Despite some progressive steps in Colorado, Washington, and Philadelphia, the actions of our federal government towards stopping the failed drug war?
Not much. More of the same, from Obama's stamp of approval on Reagan's Byrne grant program down to his appointee Michele Leonhart at the DEA. Postponing new anti-drug war policies until after an election is a callous move. Though I have a tremendous amount of respect for our President, the fact that ISIS is a central focus of our federal government, but drug cartels aren't worth our time beyond throwing more good money after bad money and bad policy, speaks volumes on how out of touch D.C. really is. Or maybe I am the one out of touch, since I am not fully educated on the key role that natural gas pipelines in the Middle East have in forcing the U.S. hand in Middle East military actions (and might also explain Europe's willingness)
I wish I could say something hopeful, and encouraging. For a couple of years, it seemed like progress was something worth being hopeful about. But like EVERY other important issue in D.C., this one has stalled. And while it sits stalled, thousands of people die needlessly. Millions more are imprisoned needlessly. And even Mexican citizens, according to years of polling, have drunk the drug war kool-aid and continue to insist that drugs should be illegal. Though Mexicans are favorable to medical marijuana, "polls have for years shown a majority of the population opposes outright legalization of marijuana."
The drug cartels were in the news again recently for murdering a citizen journalist, and using her own twitter account to post pictures of her dead body.
From a moral and legal standpoint, one could more easily make the argument that the USA has an obligation to reduce cartel violence in the Western Hemisphere more than it has an obligation to combat terrorism around the globe. We need to clean up our own mess. We start by ending the war on drugs and beginning a new policy, one that does not rely on enriching private prisons, police unions, or prison guard unions (the only union for unskilled labor that the GOP loves).
While the Islamic militants have killed a handful of journalists, the cartels murdered as many as 57 since 2006 for reporting on cartel crimes or exposing government complicity with the criminals. Many of Mexico’s media have been effectively silenced by intimidation or bribes.
Let us not sit back and witness the faux-pious proclamations from war hawks about our need to send more ground troops to iraq or Syria for humanitarian reasons, when we do nothing to stop the slaughter happening on our own border. If the pundits in conservative media cared about our "borders", they'd stop supporting failed drug policies that effectively undermine any attempt to have a secure border.